Also would add that Bruce Springsteen and Conan O'Brien's drummer Max Weinberg sat in for the closer, "With a Little Help . . ." Agree that PNC was HOT, and that it was a superb show - we had 11th row center aisle seats! Take care,

(8/13/01)
Now, from Patti Murawski:

Well, saw my last RS gig for this tour. The heat here was BRUTAL on Thursday for the PNC Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. During the day it got to 106 in Newark, 103 in NYC, and the humidity made the heat index up to 110-117. The local radio put the temperature above 100 an hour before showtime, and by showtime at 8 PM it dropped a couple of degrees to MAYBE 98. I know after the show they said it was about 90 and that was at 10:30-11:00 PM!

Anyway, it was the best show of the 5 I've seen. The crowd in Holmdel is always the best. The band felt it, the crowd felt it, despite the sweltering heat and humidity...it was really high energy, one of the best All Starr shows I've ever attended. The sweat was pouring off everyone except Ian Hunter who looked like he hadn't perspired a drop.

No solo spots in Holmdel or Atlantic City.; I don't know if they did any in VT or NH, they only did them at Jones Beach out of the group of shows I went to.

Atlantic City... the crowd was one of those, "you must entertain me" sort of New York hot shot high roller casino crowds. Ringo made a few cracks at it, and Howard Jones didn't really try too hard at all with his audience participation as it didn't seem to be going anywhere... To the PAYING fans credit, the people up in the "cheap" seats in the back started singing the "whoa whoa whoa's" again after Howard had already finished "Things Can Only Get Better" which really surprised him, since most of the crowd had not been interested during the song. Even Yellow Submarine was a hard sell to this crowd to get up and participate.

We did get a little snatch of "Matchbox" ("I didn't realize this was a request show!?!")and "I Feel Good" (James Brown) out of Ringo during the show.

Then Saturday the heavens opened up teeming with rain overnight and it has been pouring and flash flooding from Delaware to Connecticut but at least the heat finally broke.